This article contains spoilers for Dune: Prophecy episode 3.
Of all the mind-bending elements of the Dune universe, Voice might be the trickiest. A powerful intonation that the Bene Gesserit use to control their subjects, Voice works when described on the page, as a focus on the effects allows the reader to imagine the precise tone and timber. However, it almost always sounds silly when brought to life in an adaptation, the Denis Villenueve movies being the notable exception.
The premiere of Dune: Prophecy seemed the rule that proved the Villeneuve movies the exception. Even allowing that she was still developing the Voice, Valya’s shrill scream in “The Hidden Hand” provoked more laughter than awe. We return to the teenage Valya (portrayed by Jessica Barden) in episode three “Sisterhood Above All,” and the proto-Voice she deploys doesn’t really sound much better. But “Sisterhood Above All” gives the Voice power by revealing the emotion behind it.
Written by Monica Owusu-Breen and Jordan Goldberg and directed by Richard J. Lewis, “Sisterhood Above All” consists largely of flashbacks, showing the young Valya and Tula (the latter portrayed by Emma Canning) at their home on Lankiveil and rising in the Sisterhood. Given its propensity for exposition and nods at deep, dense Dune lore, Dune: Prophecy could have made a terrible mistake with its flashback episode “Sisterhood Above All.” Yet, the episode’s deliberate pace allows it to develop the character drama that the series has lacked so far.
On the frozen planet Lankiveil, the Harkonnens have accepted their disgrace during the Machine Wars. They spend their lives whaling (furry space whales!), which satisfies everyone but Valya. She despises her family’s complacency almost as much as she does Vorian Atreides, who she considers a pox upon her family. When her bright older brother Griffin (Earl Cave) dies at Vorian’s hands (no, it’s not quite as simple as the Harkonnens make it sound), Valya becomes fully devoted to the Atreides’ downfall.
It’s generally a bit unfair to ask a younger actor like Barden to play the same character as an established actor like Emily Watson. But while neither version of Valya is particularly complex, the show largely saddles the older actor with exposition about stuff that’s supposed to be secret. Barden gets to play an angry, single-minded and self-righteous young woman, which she does with a cutting voice and furrowed eyebrows. Barden’s wide and open face betrays Valya’s vulnerability, something more primal than what her family (including an uncle played by Mark Addy, which doesn’t help the unflattering comparisons to Game of Thrones).
But the real standout is Tula’s story, which cuts from a confrontation with Valya to her living under the name Veil (very inconspicuous, this one) with the Atreides on Caladan. Tula has fallen for the handsome and kind Orry Atreides (Milo Callaghan), and while some members of his tribe suspect the outsider, she’s largely welcomed and helps prepare the hunt for the bull. Of course, all of their trust and understanding gets paid off with murder, as Tula kills the Atreides at Valya’s behest, but there’s still a ring of truth to it.
Canning is a revelation as the younger Tula. She makes no attempt to hide Tula’s emotions, even as her character does her evil deeds against the gentle Orry. The look of determination on Canning’s face as Tula stabs poison into Orry’s neck makes perfectly clear what Tula cannot say, that she’s sacrificing everything for her sister’s vendetta. When juxtaposed against scenes of the adult Tula standing over the body of the dead Lila (Chloe Lea), the girl she raised and who died while undergoing the Agony at Valya’s behest, the sacrifice adds incredible depth to the character, made all the richer because it’s never described out loud.
So incredible is Tula’s emotional reveal that it dwarfs the plot reveal in the same episode. At the end of the episode, Tula takes Lila’s body to the secret birthing chamber that Mother Raquella showed Valya earlier, where they use banished thinking machines to engineer a proper leader. Acting independently of Valya, Tula orders the machine (called “Anirul,” a very significant name in the Dune world) to begin reviving Lila.
Without a doubt, the last moments are compelling, especially as they draw a connection between Valya and Tula’s plots and the secret of Desmond Hart. But so much of Dune: Prophecy has put plot before people, making the characters feel every bit the pieces of on the chessboard that the various schemers describe.
Even the Voice gets some proper emotional resonance added to it, as Valya elliptically reveals that she first used it with an argument with Griffin, ordering her non-swimming brother to go jump in a lake (or something more poetic). Griffin only remembers Valya rescuing him, turning an attempted murder into evidence of her heroism, but Valya knows it as an example of a power that almost destroyed the family member she loved best.
By tying the birth of Voice to Griffin, “Sisterhood Above All” grounds Valya’s plot in believable emotion. It’s not just the screech of a woman vying for power, like every other character in the series. It’s a cry of desperation from a woman who considers herself the universe’s victim, a mindset that makes her willing to destroy anything in her way, even if it’s her own sister. That’s something worth hearing.
Dune: Prophecy airs on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and Max.
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